Miyamoto hints at full body tracking for Wii Fit U

In addition to practically confirming that a Wii Fit game is coming to the Wii U, Miyamoto hinted very strongly in a recent Iwata Asks interview that the controller’s camera would be capable of Kinect-style full-body tracking.

Miyamoto: I can’t really talk about it in detail, but we’re working on new ways to do training exercises with Wii Fit, like using the camera, you can place it against something and play while the game looks at your status.

Iwata: It certainly seems possible from an engineering standpoint that the camera will recognise you if you position the new controller to look at you. Moreover, it would be much more accessible if all you have to do is to hold it, press a button and stand on the Wii Balance Board.

Motion tracking was a function I mentioned in a community feature a while ago, but there has been some doubt about whether the controller’s camera would actually be good enough to make it happen. Kinect, after all, is a combination of an infrared camera, a colour camera, and an omnidirectional microphone array, while the Wii U seems to have little more than a simple webcam. But it seems we can put those doubts aside, if Miyamoto and Iwata are this confident in the camera’s abilities.

Nintendo… MAKE… THIS… HAPPEN! Forget about the vitality sensor and all that nonsense: Wii Sports or Wii Fit would never be the same! Even Zelda games could feel more realistic. Imagine you actually throwing a bomb, making the exact movement, or moving yourself fighting with the sword… EPIC.

I did get the sense that the camera on the controller would serve that kind of full-body motion purpose. If that were combined with the Wii Motion plus and the sensor bar, any future motion control games would be beast. Ideally, that is.